Eric Maurer

Former Manager (Electricity)

Boulder

Eric Maurer is a former manager with RMI’s electricity program, where he specializes in the financial and strategic analysis that underpins carbon strategy development. Eric’s research work is currently focusing on understanding the business case related to the scale (i.e., centralized vs. distributed) at which different generation assets are built.

Work at RMI

Electric utility planning and analysis—Eric is helping to advance RMI’s work with electric utilities. In RMI’s work with Duke Energy, Eric assisted the team with strategic and financial analysis of different energy efficiency and renewable energy options. Eric is also helping advance RMI’s research agenda in the area by helping with the development of a planning model to enable utility planners to build out a portfolio of generation/efficiency assets over time and test strategic implications as key assumptions change.

Distributed generation—Eric is currently researching the costs, benefits, and barriers to distributed generation. The aim of this work is to better understand and articulate the business case for distributed generation.

Building energy efficiency—Before working in RMI’s electricity program, Eric worked on a number of projects to drive greater energy efficiency in buildings. Most recently, Eric performed financial analysis to inform the energy efficiency retrofit of the Empire State Building.

Internal strategy and planning—Eric conducted research and assisted in the development of RMI’s internal strategy. This work involved identifying fossil fuel reduction objectives in key industries, identifying the barriers to achieving these outcomes, and considering approaches to overcome barriers. Using this industry-based research, Eric, along with colleagues at RMI, applied a set of criteria to help RMI identify where it should focus to drive the greatest reduction in fossil fuel use.

Background

Before arriving at RMI, Eric worked at Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC). At IRRC, Eric managed and conducted research to evaluate the environmental and social performance of publicly traded U.S. companies for possible inclusion in the FTSE4Good stock index. This research has provided Eric with a broad understanding of the environmental and social issues facing companies and how companies are addressing these issues.